The present invention relates generally to percussion instruments, and, more particularly, to a drum having a drum shell and a drum head affixed in tension to an open end of the drum shell, and having a means to adjust the tension of the drum heat in discrete areas about the periphery of the drum head and/or to adjust the tension fully across the entire area of the drum head.
With a musical percussion instrument such as a drum, a beat or rhythm is created by beating or striking the drum head to establish a vibration that is resonated throughout a drum shell, generally cylindrical in shape, and the percussion instrument produces a particular note of a desired pitch level. That particular pitch is determined basically by the tension in the drum head that is stretched across the open end of the drum shell. While the drum head is stretched in tension, various conditions as well as the normal use of the instrument can affect the tension and thus, it is quite common that there is a need to adjust the tension from time to time to bring the pitch back to the desired note.
There are a number of differing methods and systems for adjusting the tension of a drum head, however, the most common is through the use of a hoop that is used to affix the drum head to the open end of the drum shell. The hoop is a cylindrical ring that encircles the periphery of the drum head and not only affixes the drum head to the drum shell but is arranged such that the drum hoop can be adjusted to draw the drum head tighter or looser across the open end to adjust the tension on the drum head and, thus, adjust the pitch of the sound from the drum. Again, in the typical manner, there are a plurality of tensioning rods that are affixed to the drum hoop and to the drum shell, or another oppositely disposed drum hoop, and there is an adjusting mechanism that allows the tensioning rods to draw the drum head tighter or looser to affect its tension. Normally, the means to affect the tension is through the use of a number of threaded lug bolts that can be rotated so as to adjust the axial position of the drum hoop to pull the drum head tighter or looser against the drum shell. Generally, there may be from four to twelve or more lug bolts that can be adjusted depending upon the particular drum.
One of the difficulties in the tuning of a drum is to make the adjustment of the tension even or uniform throughout the drum head, that is, the user must adjust each individual bolt to create the overall to be head is tuned to itself to cause the overall tension to be uniform. With the aforedescribed system, therefore, to tune the overall drum head to itself, it is necessary to tune individual lug bolts all around the periphery of the drum head so that the overall tension across the drum head can be exactly the same, a feat that is not particularly easy to accomplish. Aside from that tuning, the overall proper tension across the drum head itself, or the absolute tension, must also be adjusted and in such case, again, all of the individual lug bolts must be adjusted, in this case, such that each must be tightened or loosened the exact same amount so that the overall tension is adjusted uniformly. Not only is it quite difficult to tune each lug bolt the exact amount, it is very difficult to play the drum as the tuning is taking place to hear the effect that the re-tensioning is having on the sound of the drum. The tuning is made even more difficult where there is a two headed drum that requires tuning of both the top and bottom heads simultaneously.
As indicated, the threaded lug bolts are provided as a plurality of such bolts and are spaced radially around the outer periphery of the drum head so that the overall tightening process requires the user to tighten each threaded bolt individually to change the tension in the overall drum head. As such, the process is somewhat limited in its ability to accurately tighten each of the individual bolts to achieve uniformity or, on the other hand, the process takes considerable time to achieve the desired drum sound. As will be seen, however, there is an advantage in having the ability to adjust the drum tension in a plurality of discrete areas around the periphery of the drum, however, it would also be an advantage to have a simpler method and mechanism for causing an overall adjustment to the tension of the drum head without going through the laborious task of individually adjusting a plurality of bolts circling the periphery of the drum head. Thus, in effect, it would be advantageous to be able to make the individual adjustments at localized discrete areas of the drum head as is conventional while having a more simple means of adjusting the overall absolute head tension.
There has evolved, various systems to carry out the overall adjustment of the drum head. For example, in the Toscano U.S. Pat. No. 5,739,448, there is a mechanism that can be used to tighten the entire drum head as a whole, that is, by rotating a key, a counter hoop is caused to rotate and move axially with respect to the drum shell to adjust the tension across the entire drum head. While the mechanism is adaptable to adjust the overall drum head tension, the counterhoop rotates so as to create difficulty in obtaining a uniform tension as there can be some twisting of the peripheral edge of the drum head. Additionally, the mechanism of Toscani has no means to allow the user to change the tension at lesser, discrete areas of the drum head as is possible with conventional drum head tensioning mechanisms using the tensioning rods and threaded bolts. The ability to rely on the well known, conventional individual tensioning rods and threaded bolts is an advantageous feature to users that are well familiar with and thus comfortable with such means.
On the other hand, in the Light U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,852 there is a mechanism that can be used to adjust the overall tension of the drum while at the same time, use a manual adjustment nut to adjust the drum tension at smaller, discrete areas. However in the Light reference, there is the use of multiple sprockets and a chain and would be a cumbersome mechanism to operate and install and requires very close tolerances to maintain uniformity along the periphery of the drum head as the tension of the overall drum head is adjusted. With Light, the individual tightening nuts are in an unconventional location and are difficult to utilize. It would be preferable to have a mechanism that would utilize the normal tensioning lug bolts surrounding the outer periphery adjacent the drum head to carry out the localized area adjustments to the drum head as the user is well familiar with tightening those individual bolts manually at the outer periphery of the drum head.
Other examples of mechanisms that can be used to carry out an overall tightening of the drum head include that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,657 of Sobriera where a ratchet type arrangement is proposed and U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,952 of Arbiter where there is a camming means employed, however, each reference has certain drawbacks in adjustability of the tension or in the complexity of the mechanism involved.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a drum tensioning system and mechanism that would allow the user an easy means to adjust the overall tension in the drum head as well as to allow the conventional adjustment by means of individual devices to tune the drum head in discrete areas around the periphery of the drum head.
Therefore, in accordance with the present invention, there is a drum tuning mechanism that utilizes some of the conventional lug bolts so that the user can individually carry out the normal tuning as is presently accomplished but where a further improvement is included to facilitate the tuning of the overall absolute head tension. Accordingly, with the present mechanism, there is a drum shell that is a normal cylindrical configuration having a central axis and which has a drum head tautly covering at least one of the ends of the drum shell.
Surrounding the periphery of the drum head is a drum hoop, again generally in accordance with conventional construction and which affixes the normal mylar drum head to the end of the drum shell. As is conventional, the drum hoop is adapted to move axially with respect to the central axis of the cylindrical drum shell so as to allow the tightening and loosening of the tension on the drum head.
The present invention also includes a plurality of lug bolts that are spaced about the periphery of the drum head and which can be used to tighten and loosen the tension on the drum head in discrete areas about that drum head much in the manner that such drum heads are currently adjusted for tension. With the present invention, however, the lug bolts include shoulders that bear downwardly against the areas of the drum hoop and which can be hand tightened by a conventional drum tightening drum key to effect the normal tightening of the drum head by localized areas, however, the other ends of each of the lug bolts are threadedly secured to lug blocks that are axially movable with respect to the same central axis of the cylindrical drum shell. Thus, there are a plurality of the lug blocks that are located around the outer surface of the drum shell and which are constrained for movement only in that axial direction.
Normally, the lug blocks are secured positively so as to allow the user to make an individual tightening or loosening of any of the lug bolts, however, in addition, the lug bolts are all moveable simultaneously so as to increase or decrease the absolute tension universally of the drum head. In the preferred embodiment, there is a annular outer ring that surrounds the entire outside of the drum shell and which is movably threaded to an inner ring that is firmly affixed to the drum shell. By thus rotating the outer ring, the threaded engagement with the inner ring causes the outer ring to move axially with respect to the central axis of the drum shell. The lug blocks are therefore all affixed to the outer ring with a sliding fit such that as the outer ring is displaced axially, so are the plurality of lug bolts and correspondingly, the entire drum hoop is caused to also move axially to change the overall absolute tension of the drum head.
Accordingly, the present drum tuning mechanism allows the user to carry out the conventional individual adjustment of a plurality of lug bolts to adjust the drum head tension at a plurality of discrete localized areas around that drum head, or alternately, to cause a rotation of the outer ring to move all of the lug bolts simultaneously to affect the overall tension of the drum head.
Other features and advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a review of the ensuing description which proceeds with reference to the following illustrative drawings.